


Extolled

by Medie



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-08-08
Updated: 2010-08-08
Packaged: 2017-10-10 23:53:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 805
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/105832
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Medie/pseuds/Medie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When he is older, a man and the disgraced First Prime of a false god, he will wonder how much his parents had known.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Extolled

They flee in the night. Word spreads quickly after his father's death, but it doesn't matter to Teal'c nor his mother. They've already made for the gate. Ro'nac was not feared among his Jaffa, he needed no fear to maintain his leadership, and that loyalty saves his wife and child. Leading one of his men to slip away before word reaches their village, warning them of all that has happened.

There's no surprise in his mother's eyes when she hears. None in Teal'c's either. He'd known, in the way all children understand the inevitable yet never truly comprehend, his father would not return.

He had not imagined it. But he had known.

His father is dead and, in the cold light of the Chapaa'ai, he cannot comprehend it. His mother's hand tightens about his. She's a fearsome woman, tall and elegant, and he holds tight to her and the promise in her stance. She is of an old and powerful line of warriors and First Primes. Hers have walked among the gods for generations and, carrying that within him, so will he.

It is that promise which follows him through the uncertain days which follow. They are disgraced, shamed and cast out by Cronus and his decree, and the Jaffa of Chulak watch them with wary eyes. Apophis cares not for a widow and her son, but he will. Teal'c has decided such. He will grow into a man and become the First Prime of Apophis. He will lead his god's Jaffa into battle and he will wipe all that march beneath Cronus' standard from the very face of the stars.

Such goals are far beyond them now, but that will change. Teal'c has faith in more than the gods. He has seen the look in his mother's eye. They have not much, fleeing quickly as they had, but still she finds them a home. Marshaling the remainder of their provisions, she uses them to carve out a place for them.

"They will not accept us on their own, my son," she says. "We will make them."

Teal'c nods, following her through the village. She keeps her head high, the very incarnation of the wife of a First Prime, and ignores the offers of young, eager-eyed Jaffa. Instead, she keeps her own house and her own counsel.

"Ignore them," she murmurs, when the others taunt and tease. When they call his father weak, spitting upon his name, and Teal'c cannot fight them all. "Do not hear their words. They are afraid that, some day, their god will abandon them as Cronus abandoned your father. The gods are powerful, but they are not without flaw. Your father knew that and you must as well."

Her hand on his face is gentle, but strong and Teal'c leans into the touch. The warmth of the afternoon wind pushes through the window, ruffling the shawl draped over her shoulders. The fringe brushes Teal'c's arm and he remembers the day his father gave it to her. Bought with the spoils from one of a thousand victories. All the victories that had mattered not at all on that final day.

He thinks of the wealth and splendor that had marked his upbringing and begins to see. At least, he thinks that he does.

"Your father was sent to die," his mother adds. She looks down at him, calm. "He and those that followed him so that Cronus would win the day on another world. Their lives mattered little as do all the lives of all Jaffa. We are nothing to them."

"They are all-powerful, Mother," Teal'c says, but there is no certainty in the words. He begins to see the fear in the voices of his agemates and can almost pity their weakness. Almost. Instead, he sees his mother and the truths she's hidden for so long and so well. "What does the truth matter to that?"

His mother sighs. Resigned. She could lie. He knows, now, that she could without warning and without self-incrimination. She does not. "Some day, Apophis may expect the same of you." Without further comment, she brushes fingertips against his cheek. The touch is fleeting, familiar, but carries an air of something more.

Before he can ask, she withdraws and the moment passes. "Go," she says. She turns away, drawing her shawl tight about her body. "Bra'tac is waiting."

Teal'c does.

When he is older, a man and the disgraced First Prime of a false god, he will wonder how much his parents had known. How much they had kept within them, away from their son's innocent eyes, and he will grieve the parents he never truly knew. The people hidden behind the facade of a thousand lies interwoven with the faintest threads of truth.

Now he is a boy and he goes to his lessons.


End file.
